The present invention relates to a shield support assembly for underground mining. The shield support assembly includes a shield canopy and at least one floor runner as supporting surface elements. The shield assembly and at least one floor runner are connected in an articulated manner via a link mechanism and can be pressed against surrounding rock of a chamber to be kept open by means of at least one hydraulic cylinder which is supported in bearing pans on the shield canopy and floor runner. Each supporting surface element includes a welded construction of welded-together components. The present invention also relates to a supporting surface element such as a floor runner or a shield canopy for a shield support assembly for underground mining. The supporting surface element includes a welded construction of welded-together components and at least one bearing pan for supporting a hydraulic cylinder which can be pressed against another supporting surface element.
Shield support assemblies which can be adjusted in their height by means of hydraulic cylinders have been used in underground mining for decades and generally comprise two floor runners, a link mechanism, a goaf shield and a one-part or multi-part shield canopy which is connected in an articulated manner to the goaf shield. The shield canopy is pressed against the so-called hanging wall or roof, i.e. the overlying rock of an underground working face, by extending the usually two, sometimes also four, hydraulic cylinders so that a chamber, usually referred to as a stope, can be kept free within the underground rock for the purpose of arranging the winning machines. A plurality of height-adjustable shield support assemblies form an advancing support which can be moved forward or can push forward a winning machine by means of retracting the hydraulic cylinders and advancing individual shield support assemblies using substantially horizontally oriented advancing cylinders which are supported on the winning machine.
To achieve economic mining there is regularly a demand for shield support assemblies having a larger supporting surface which must be able to absorb correspondingly higher forces. The present invention provides a shield support assembly and also a shield canopy and/or a floor runner as a supporting surface element for such a shield support assembly which meet these requirements.